Tag Archives: 2320 MHz

November 22nd, 2016

Today I configured the MKU 23 G4, I ordered from Michael in Friedrichshafen to perform a RX test. Via aircraft scatter it was no problem to receive the beacons OZ7IGY in JO55WM over 670 km and OK0EK in JN89VJ over 689 km. The sun noise is at a level of 6 dB.

From Monday, June 22nd to Wednesday, June 24th I will be QRV during the evenings on 23 cm and 13 cm using the special event callsign DL65DARC.
Skeds (aircraft scatter, tropo) are welcome via ON4KST, Facebook or email.

Rig will be a 3 m dish with 150 W on 23 cm and 75 W on 13 cm. The QTH locator is JN49CV. SSB, CW and WSJT modes are suitable. Operation on relays is not intended.

If I find some spare time, I will be QRV on June 25th, 26th and 28th as well.

The first remarkable opening for quite a long time happened from 10th to 11th of February 2015. F5LENs refractive index forecast promised good conditions for these days. It started with some stations from G, appearing on 2 m. While the activity contests were going on in Scandinavia and the UK on 70 cm, a few operators dropped into the microwave chat. At least two new DXCCs could be worked before going to bed: Steward, GM4AFF in IO86TS and Gordon, GI6ATZ in IO74AJ as no. 30 and no. 31 on 23 cm. Only a few beacons could be heard via tropo: GB3FM in IO91OF, GB3MHZ in JO02PB, PI7ALK in JO22IP, OZ5SHF in JO45VX and OZ1UHF in JO57GH as a new one.

Green: Stations worked on 23 cm Red: Beacons heard on 23 cm

In the morning the inversion had moved to the north-east and never before heard beacons from Sweden became audible on 23 cm. SK6UHI in JO57TX, SK6MHI in JO57TQ, SK6UHI in JO97CJ and SK4BX in JO79LI over 1138 km as my new beacon ODX appeared on the band. Many of the Swedish stations were as loud here as locals. Some of them could be worked on 13 cm as well.

Short version of the lecture with focus on aircraft scatter and ISS bounce.
We meet at 15:00 MEST on the car park at the town hall. There will be a flee market for GHz stuff and the opportunity to test own equipment or to have QSOs with other participants.

July 30th, 2014

For quite a while now I try to catch a signal of ISEE-3. Because of severe thunderstorms, there was no opportunity to check out yesterday. But today (July 30th, 2014) is the day to listen to this 36 year old bird.

The signal of the beacon on 2,270.414 MHz isn´t too strong, but clearly audible in the speaker. The actual distance is about 1.6 million km, the furthermost man made signal I ever received!

The downlink transponder A on 2.270.4 MHz uses an antenna array with a gain of 7 dBi, a beamwidth of 12° and circular polarisation. The nominal TX power is 5 W.

The equipment I am using, is just a FUNcube Dongle Pro with a 13 cm ATV converter (LO 916 MHz, IF 1,354 MHz) and a 13 cm LNA near the 23/13 cm dual band ringfeed at my 3 m dish.

Frequency calibration is performed on ordinary 13 cm beacons like DB0UX. The dish calibration is done by optimizing sun noise on 23 cm or the levels of SIRIUS satellites on 13 cm.

On July 24th, 2014 on 19:00 CEST I will talk about how to surmount the horizon on VHF and up at the local DARC Club in Bodenheim near Mainz.

After giving an overview over the classic propagation modes Es, Aurora, MS and Tropo, I will explain, how aircraft scatter and ISS bounce work. EME will be subjected too and the presentation will be completed by an introduction to “Visual Moonbounce” as performed by Daniela de Paulis.

German Funkamateur mgazine has published my article “Abenteuer Bakenbeobachtung von 144 MHz bis 10 GHz” in its recent issue July 2014. As many topics are related to posts on this website, some of them are compiled here. Links to certain other websites can be found in the link list to the right.